Business Development Business Partner

It’s the people at Shakespeare Martineau that make us so special. By understanding what our people want, giving them the support they need, recognising everyone’s contribution and realising the unique power of teams, together we win.   As a firm we are focused on proactively building and developing diverse teams, bringing different backgrounds, personalities and perspectives together. We play to our strengths, pushing ourselves to be consistently better than yesterday and deliver amazing solutions for our clients. We empower our teams with a high degree of individual responsibility; we self-manage and encourage everyone to be responsible for their own learning, knowing it makes us even better at what we do!    

We believe in trusting our people to make the right decisions for themselves, from when and where you work, to how you dress; we focus on outputs.  

Want to find more about our amazing benefits?

The Business Development Business Partner will work with two teams.

Our Corporate Team has a long-standing experience of working with some of the most successful and influential businesses in the UK and also internationally. Our specialist teams combine expertise with a sound understanding of the commercial landscape to provide exceptional solutions for every aspect of our clients’ corporate requirements.

The East Midlands is a region bursting with innovation, from large regeneration projects to residential developments, family businesses to listed companies – the East Midlands has it all. Working with our cross service teams, you’ll bring your knowledge of the local market to help drive growth across the region.

We have an exciting opportunity for a Business Development (BD) Business Partner to join our close knit Marketing team.

We are looking for someone to play a critical part in achieving growth with our national corporate practice and across the East Midlands through business development initiatives and assisting the growth of our business to be one of the most successful legal groups in the UK top 30.  You will work closely with senior leaders of the corporate team and our offices in the East Midlands to develop strategies and put plans in action.

This role is full of opportunities!   We are particularly keen to have conversations with those who take accountability and have the ambition to shape the role to be most effective and to drive growth.

To ensure you thrive in the role, we will provide you with the support and coaching you need to grow and shape your career.

Your key duties will be:

• working with team leaders to develop growth strategies for the corporate team, across the East Midlands and wider firm
• driving business development initiatives forward
• acting to conduit between the corporate team, East Midlands offices and marketing specialisms team
• encouraging challenging and coaching partners and other fee earners with their own business development goals
• working with the business and leading key account planning
• identifying targeting initiatives and developing go-to-market strategies alongside marketing colleagues
• leading relevant sales development meetings
• coaching individual lawyers seeking support on a 1:2:1 basis
• talking to clients and prospects to introduce our teams and services
• working with cross-firm teams to identify opportunities in key sectors and markets
• using CRM and client analytics to identify and unlock new work opportunities
• identifying new areas of referral and planning how best to leverage those relationships
• researching partnership/sponsorship opportunities and working with the wider team to create event and activation plans

Skills and experience you will have:

• experience of working as a business development manager with a corporate legal team
• sound knowledge of the east Midlands market place and experience as a business development manager in the region
• deal origination experience is desirable
• experience of managing client development programmes would be ideal however, not essential

Key competencies you will need:

• passionate about delivering business growth
• excellence at developing relationships at all levels
• highly engaging and a strong influencer, able to collaborate and bring colleagues on board with new initiatives
• a strong self-manager with sound prioritisation skills
• experienced at moving strategy in action
• a flexible approach, to be agile minded and respond positively to change
• a keen eye for spotting commercial opportunities
• full of ideas and initiative
• excellent written and presenting skills
• resilience, where you are comfortable working on multiple projects within a fast paced, fast changing working environment

We embrace agile working and offer a blended approach to where and how we work.

We appreciate that people have different needs and preferences and we’re keen to be flexible, after all, we value what you do, not where you do it.

We have hubs in Birmingham, Leicester, London, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Solihull, Stratford-upon-Avon and Sheffield. This role can offer a blend of home and office working; we are flexible about the office hub from which you want to work.

Please be aware, for some vacancies, where we receive high numbers of applications we may need to bring the close date forward.

Due to the nature of the work undertaken, confirmation of employment will be subject to a variety of checks which will be carried out once an offer of employment is accepted. Details of the checks can be found here.

Shakespeare Martineau is a committed equal opportunities employer. We seek to attract, develop and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures. We value and respect individuality and encourage a culture within our business where people can be themselves and be valued for their strengths and experiences. Everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, regardless of their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.